Over 40 Auschwitz guards to face German justice

How long is this going to go on...

Until it is finished.

I am sure more Auschwitz guards will turn up in the 22nd century as well, if the Wiesenthal Center is still around then.

You know, trying people just for being a guard at a camp, short evidence of personal atrocity, is great and all, but the idea is rather ex post facto. Do that and you may as well put all former German soldiers on trial for the atrocities of the SS, since they obviously aided and abetted the SS. Well, it would be fine with me if everyone knew from the start that could happen. It should be clear law. You serve in any force, military or otherwise, that commits widespread atrocity, you are culpable. Might keep some of these young fools from ever signing up.

They're just going for the lower level guys now. One thing they should have done 50 years ago, was go after the Ukrainian collaborators, I don't think any have been brought to justice and they were responsible for at least 1-2 million civilian murders.

The guards were SS. The guards were guilty of doing nothing to end the atrocities. The guards also could not do much to help otherwise they themselves could have suffered the same fate as other Auschwitz inmates. No doubt some guards were somewhat sympathetic to the inmates at times. It would be shallow minded to say they all were as evil as most.

Difficult to bring random guards with such little evidence most individual guards.

" You serve in any force, military or otherwise, that commits widespread atrocity, you are culpable."

Indeed. How many soldiers and their leaders have committed atrocities? That list would be VERY long, and include many present and living former leaders since WWII.

Whistleblowers in Nazi Germany were "dealt with" such as those of White Rose.

"The six most recognized members of the group were arrested by the Gestapo and beheaded in 1943. The text of their sixth leaflet was smuggled by Helmuth James Graf von Moltke out of Germany through Scandinavia to the United Kingdom, and in July 1943 copies of it were dropped over Germany by Allied planes, retitled "The Manifesto of the Students of Munich."

Another member, Hans Conrad Leipelt, who helped distribute Leaflet 6 in Hamburg, was executed on January 29, 1945, for his participation.

Today, the members of the White Rose are honoured in Germany amongst its greatest heroes, since they opposed the Third Reich in the face of almost certain death."

Had any of these guards uttered a peep of opposition, they would have suffered the same fate.

Whistleblowers are owed a debt of gratitude by society, not persecution.

You might recall he spent a while on death row in israel because alleged witnesses lied

This strikes me as your personal opinion (which based on your obsession with Israel and with things related to Nazis is starting to appear very questionable) or fact? Who lied? What did they lie about?

Seems they bring up the holocaust

It seems that you show up on threads about the holocaust for the sole purpose of downplaying it. Why is that?

You serve in any force, military or otherwise, that commits widespread atrocity, you are culpable. Might keep some of these young fools from ever signing up.

Because you think the German soldiers signed up ? I have a relative that didn't want to do his military service in the Reich's army. Actually nobody wanted. If they had to count on volunteers, they had 2% of guys nationwide and 0% from my region. Well, at night, he went to the city hall and the military HQ to tear off the pages with his record from the books so they wouldn't call him and his brother. But it seems they had copies, or someone denounced him, So at the next war, he had the great honor to be the first of the region to leave. Those a-holes took him in photos in uniform, he was on 1st page of the newspaper, and that said he was so happy to help his country. He never came back to tell his joy in person, but now, he's a god, well a Gott , enshrined in some kind of Yasukuni shrine.

The guards were guilty of doing nothing to end the atrocities.

Maybe some did something and that failed. What do we know and how can we investigate so many years later ? But were they more guilty than the other citizens that had voted Hitler in power and have let him continue his policies ? They could has well arrest anybody that was over the age of 18 and lived in Germany in 1945.

Because you think the German soldiers signed up ?

You need to separate the two sentences a bit more. I don't know the percentages of volunteers and draftees. Does it matter? American draftees fled to Canada to avoid the Vietnam war. I salute those people. It takes more guts to stand up to your friends than your enemies. Our war hawk members will no doubt poo-poo that idea and say they were cowards for running. But in fact, draftees who did not want to go were the real cowards for letting themselves get shipped.

As I pointed out in my post, this rule needs to be laid down clearly for all time: if you serve in forces that commit widespread atrocity, you will be help culpable. That will make men realize its probably better for them to flee wars of aggression. Soldiers of WWII did not have laid out. So they figured they better just serve.

Historically men were told that they better not do anything that they cannot explain to God, because He does not accept excuses. But these days fewer and fewer believe in God so we need a replacement. The ICJ is not enough.

Many of you need to read the article again for it seems that you are missing a valuable point.

The investigative office, set up in 1958, has carried out more than 7,000 probes but has no powers to charge suspects itself. Instead it sends case files to regional prosecutors who then decide whether to pursue suspects, who must also be judged fit to stand trial by the courts.

Nobody said all of these people will be prosecuted. The office is just sending files for the people to prosecutors to decide whether any possible wrong-doing was committed. I highly doubt many will go to trial, but there is nothing wrong with investigating.

It is too late now time to stop.

Perhaps I was a little cryptic before. Here we go again.

I find it ironic that guards with no proven involvement in the genocide are being arrested and prosecuted in an era when the U.S. prosecutes people trying to tell the truth about what's going on in Iraq and Afghanistan while those who slaughter innocent civilians go free as heroes.

I find it ironic that some people have totally failed to learn from the past, and that we're on the brink of yet more atrocities, with the U.S. preparing to fire missiles into civilian populated areas of Syria on the flimsiest of evidence.

It seems to me like people are reading this story as if it isn't applicable to what's happening here and now. It is.

Who knows, maybe in the future Palestinians will be sending papers to Palestinian prosecutors for Israeli War crimes against them. I knew a few fellow Palestinian students when I was in college who told horrible stories of Israeli's terrorizing and murdering their family members. I believed him.

" in an era when the U.S. prosecutes people trying to tell the truth about what's going on in Iraq and Afghanistan while those who slaughter innocent civilians go free as heroes."

I could be wrong but I think that particular support group is being held here today;

http://www.japantoday.com/category/world/view/wave-of-attacks-kills-at-least-35-in-baghdad-area

Only good thing about this is the precedent being set, that will most certainly be used against those abuse & benefit from it today.

Many Germans understand this, and some Japanese do too: dutifully accepting relentless abuse is the best way to guarantee that kind, conscientious people one day commit the same atrocities they oppose... in the name of Necessity.